Globalization in transition

This is a fascinating report about global trade, with many interesting statistics, and with points of view not often presented so cogently.

Authors Susan Lund, James Manyika, Jonathan Woetzel, Jacques Bughin, Mekala Krishnan, Jeongmin Seong, and Mac Muir point out that global trade in services already probably exceeds that for goods. If a fair value is placed on it, we would see the US trade deficit, for example,wiped out and replaced by a larger surplus. They also point out that labor is a declining factor both in the value of production, and in labor cost’s ability to determine where products get made. The intellectual property value is much higher, and often moves in reverse fashion to the goods. But it is hard to price into conventional labor statistics.